New graphics card

Dresden

Dresden

Celebrating Mediocrity
Veteran
I'm contemplating replacing my current ATI X1900 XTX with one of the new Nvidia cards. I like the 9800 series, but frankly the GX2 is downright absurd in it's prices. I was eyeballing the 9800 GTX, but was wondering how much of an upgrade it would be from what I'm running now. They both operate at the same core clock frequency. Would I be better served just sucking it up and buying a 9800 GX2, or is the GTX actually a decent card? Also, is my current PSU ready for such an upgrade? The model is as follows:

http://www.antec.com/ec/productDetails.php?ProdID=07665

Thanks-

Ink
 
It'd be a huuuge upgrade from what you're running, and your PSU should be fine for it.

Oh wait, what CPU are you running?
 
digitalwanderer said:
It'd be a huuuge upgrade from what you're running, and your PSU should be fine for it.

Oh wait, what CPU are you running?
Click to expand...


I'm running a C2 Q6600 on an Abit IP35 Pro. I was considering the GX2 because of it's dual GPU's combining for 1gb of video memory, the entire 512mb sort of threw me off. I assume there's other technology, including the ability to render DX10, with the GTX that alone will outdo what I'm currently running.
 
Sorry can't help you there, someone else will have to. My only experience with nVidia as of late is an 8800 GTS.

The 8800 GTS is damned nice, I can say that. A huge, mega-improvement over your current X1900.
 
Bludd said:
What resolutions are you going to be playing at?
Click to expand...

Nothing major. I typically play at 1280x1024, nothing really drastic. Perhaps 1600x1200 with some games. I was reading because it's only 512 mb, the 9800 GTX is limited with higher resolutions with AA enabled, as opposed to the GX2 which is intended to perform better at such resolutions. That's apparently the most major drawback of the GTX.
 
If you can wait RV770 should be out may-ish and will probably be a very solid single chip solution. I wouldn't recommend any multi-chip solution just because of the added complexity and issues that go along with it.
 
actually with dual-GPU the effective video RAM is not doubled, it's still 512MB in the case of the GX2.
if you're really concerned there are alternatives : 8800GTX (yet again), 1GB versions of 8800GT and 9600GT, SLI of such cards (but I dislike multi-GPU too)
 
Personally i would wait for the RV770. However if you must buy something now then i would go for the 8800GT or the 8800GTS. The GT offers more for your buck though and is supposed to be highly overclockable.
 
Ink said:
Nothing major. I typically play at 1280x1024, nothing really drastic. Perhaps 1600x1200 with some games. I was reading because it's only 512 mb, the 9800 GTX is limited with higher resolutions with AA enabled, as opposed to the GX2 which is intended to perform better at such resolutions. That's apparently the most major drawback of the GTX.
Click to expand...

At resolutions like that the GX2 would be a bit of a waste. Of those two I would go with a 9800GTX. At lower resolutions its often faster than the 8800Ultra which makes it the fastest single core CPU available.

And the GX2 won't show much improvement unless you dial up the resolution. Only difference of course being Crysis. Only the GX2 will do it true justice even at lower res.

As others have said though, we are finally at the point (after nearly 2 years) when truly next gen GPU's are about to launch. It may be worth waiting as an X1900XTX should still be more than enough to handle most games at max settings, especially in lower resolutions so the actual on screen difference that you will see, besides a framerate boost which may not even be noticable is the DX10 enhancements.

With regards to what DX10 brings to the table, it really depends what games your playing. In most its minimal but if your playing Lost Planet, Company of Heroes of Call of Juraez then the differences are significant. I don't mention Crysis because you can hack the higher settings anyway. I'm sure there are other games that see decent graphics boosts from DX10 but can't think of specific examples atm.
 
I have also been thinking about upgrading my GPU to an ATI HD 3870 XT OC'd version from Gecube, I currently have a x1950xt and looking at Tomshardware charts it looks like the most I will get from it is a 30 fps increase? Doesn't seem worth it to me, is that what is regarded as a major increase?

I have an X2 6400+.
 
DJ12 said:
I have also been thinking about upgrading my GPU to an ATI HD 3870 XT OC'd version from Gecube, I currently have a x1950xt and looking at Tomshardware charts it looks like the most I will get from it is a 30 fps increase? Doesn't seem worth it to me, is that what is regarded as a major increase?

I have an X2 6400+.
Click to expand...

Thats depends on the starting framerate ;)

If your getting 15fps with your XTX at the moment then hell yeah! :LOL:

In general though I think its about 50% faster in the best of cases. Certainly worth waiting given that RV770 could be with us in June.
 
Decision made.

Looking on the internet the RV770 is ~50% faster than the 670 in the 3870 so that would be a worthwhile 100% improvement on what I have. :)

Most games I play run about 60 FPS with 4xAA, only Test Drive Unlimited falls much below that mark, obviously though I would like to run these will all the options set to their highest, HDR, AA etc.etc.

I can wait a few months though.
 
I.S.T. said:
Actually, the core and shader clocks are a bit higher than the GTS 512.
Click to expand...

True, but only marginally so. 8800 GTS 512s are steals right now. I wouldn't buy a 9800 GTX unless I had an insane overclocking project in the works and/or could get it for only a bit more than an 8800 GTS 512.
 
ShaidarHaran said:
True, but only marginally so. 8800 GTS 512s are steals right now. I wouldn't buy a 9800 GTX unless I had an insane overclocking project in the works and/or could get it for only a bit more than an 8800 GTS 512.
Click to expand...
Well here in Denmark the cheapest 9800 GTX is 1.849 dkr and cheapest 8800 GTS (stock clock) 1.536 dkr. Cheapest 8800 GTS OC with 675 MHz core is 1.850 dkr which is the same price as the 9800 GTX. And with RAM speed of 9800 GTX being 2.2 GHz vs. 1.94 for the GTS OC, I know which on I would buy.
 
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